Understanding the Little Reader Curriculum

[KL]

We've been putting a lot of thought and effort in developing the curriculum, so I want to make sure everyone understands it, and that you all have a chance to share your comments with us or ask questions about it.

Here's a copy and paste from our site:

SESSION FREQUENCY:

We recommend that you give your child her reading lessons twice per day. However, the curriculum is also suitable for use once per day, in case that is all a parent can manage. Session 2 is designed to reinforce Session 1, and is optional.

The curriculum is designed to be shown on weekdays, in case it is not convenient to teach on weekends. You can continue to teach on weekend days, should you wish. Weekends are also a good time to catch up on any lessons missed during the week.


CHOICE OF WORDS:

The words in the BrillKids curriculum have been carefully chosen to appeal to young children. Three categories of word are shown each day (not including Pattern Phonics™). For example, on Day 1, your child will see words from the Common Animals, Parts of the Body, and Action Words categories.

There are eight core categories containing words that tend to interest young children the most. These categories are on higher rotation than the others. Each time a core category returns, it will be given a new twist. For instance, the same list of verbs may have the suffix "-ing" added, or the words may start with a capital, or they may be in block caps.
 
   
ROTATION OF WORDS:

Every day one word will be retired and one new word added to each category of your lessons. When the end of a category is reached, the first word retired will return. Each word will be shown a total of 12 times (or 6 times, if you are showing Session 1 only).
 
   
WHAT’S IN A SESSION:

Each Little Reader session is divided into four lesson segments:

A – Word Flash lesson
B – Multisensory lesson
C – Picture Flash lesson
D – Pattern Phonics™ lesson
   

A (Word Flash) – Word Flash is used to teach words by the flash card method. Words will auto-forward rapidly and take less than a minute to play.

What's good about this method? Information presented at speed is more likely to be apprehended by the right hemisphere of the brain. This enables children to memorize large amounts of information effortlessly. This type of teaching is particularly effective for very young children, who are more right-brain dominant than older children and adults. (To learn more, go to the Right-Brain Learning article on BrillBaby.)
   

B (Multisensory) – Multisensory gives you the opportunity to teach at a leisurely pace and interact with your child. You will control the speed of the lesson, and manually move between words.

What's good about this method? Learning is enhanced when we experience the meanings of words through several sensory channels. Teaching this way is lots of fun, too! Young children love watching animations, hearing and imitating animal noises, and performing actions such as raising their arms or kicking their legs. (For more ways to interact with your child, go to the Little Reader Start Guide => Tips => How to Make the Most of Multisensory Lessons).

C (Picture Flash) – Picture Flash is like Word Flash – except this time we are teaching the meanings of words by the flash card method. This will effectively reinforce what your child has learned during B – Multisensory.
   
D (Pattern Phonics™) – Pattern Phonics™ introduces your child to the relationships between letters and sounds in a gradual, progressive manner.

What's good about this method? Children taught to read in babyhood have been known to develop an intuitive understanding of phonics. BrillKids' Pattern Phonics™ course is designed to facilitate and accelerate this natural process.

From Day 1 to Day 20, your child’s sessions will consist of lessons A to C only. By the end of Day 20, your child will have seen over 50 words a dozen times each. This is where Pattern Phonics™ come in.

From Day 21 onwards, your child’s sessions will contain all four segments, A-D.
 
   
CONTENT SELECTION:

Your scheduled session will take 5-10 minutes, but your lesson does not have to end there. Keep going as long as your child is interested. The time after a session is a good opportunity to show customized words as well as any categories that particularly interest your child.

[jemjem]

Thanks Brillkids Team for a wonderful job 

Would just like to ask where can I find the 'Recommended Lessons'? Are these not included in the curriculum?

Thanks 

[nhockaday]

I just wanted to mention how I will be using the curriculum. Since we are already used to using LR 3 times a day, we will see session one, session two, and the last session will be 5 categories from my own library (including all my old files, downloaded files, etc.) This way we will still be able to use all the great files that we used to see, and it will be easy to fit them in.

[jakim]

when will the upgrade be available to those that already have LR

[linzy]

I just wanted to say thanks to you guys this looks like a really smart and well done program.

[nhockaday]

when will the upgrade be available to those that already have LR

You can upgrade now! See here http://forum.brillkids.com/announcements/important-notice-for-little-reader-118-users-(read-before-upgrading!)/

[Joanna07]

the curriculum looks great

I'd like to know if it can be customized to use with foreign languages

[KL]

Not yet, I'm afraid. However, this will be possible when v2 comes out later this year, where you will be able to take full control of the curriculum.

[LongTallDrink]

I'm very impressed with you lot - this update will be a tremendous help - thank you!

[jemjem]

In the 'Account Management' > 'Software systems' tab >  'Progress Diary' tab, there are the lesson plans for Week 1-52 as well as the Recommended Lessons.  Last night I was able to see all the available lessons from the 6-month curriculum.  But now, I can only view the Week 1.


thanks 

[luckylucy]

Thanks so much Brill Kids team.  This is so exciting!

[jaluitgirl]

I love what you have done so far.  I've just been reviewing the list of what you have included in the 12-month curriculum.  I did see that there were 2 categories of couplets.  However, I didn't see anything exactly that fits "phrases" or "sentences".  Have you included anything like that in your curriculum?

I've been using the Doman method with my son for 7 months now (mainly by using LR as my platform).  For the past 3 months I have found him capable of doing phrases and sentences.  However, I found that the LR Library didn't have much that helped me get from words to couplets to phrases to sentences in an organized way.  I have created a few LR Categories myself but found it a bit time consuming.

Anyhow, I'm hoping that your new curriculum will help me get from words to sentences (and all the steps in between) in a systematic way.    I'm thinking that 12 months of individual words, while being useful at developing vocabulary, won't quite get our children to the end goal of independent reading.

[nhockaday]

There will be more couplets and short phrases in the second half of the course. It will be released soon.

[KL]

Yes, as Nikki mentioned, there'll be much more of that in Semester 2 which we're still finalizing.

Semester 1 introduces couplets and short sentences (see People and Actions - "The man is jumping" etc.). towards the end, building on words already introduced previously.

[jemjem]

Hi KL,

Can we add another list in the dropdown list in the Courses tab so we can make our own courses aside from the default one? Thanks 

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